Final reports

Evaluation reports can be read by many different audiences, ranging from individuals in government departments, donor and partner staff, development professionals working with similar projects or programmes, students and community groups. 

Regardless of who the target audience is, ensure that your report is readable, straight to the point, and uses a writing style that promotes understanding. Cut down on theoretical and methodological descriptions that make it difficult for your readers to find the answers to their questions. 

A good evaluation report contains these basic components:

  • An executive summary containing a condensed version of the most important aspects of the evaluation (see previous point).
  • A summary of the evaluation’s focus, with a discussion of the purpose, objectives and questions used to direct the evaluation.
  • A summary of the evaluation plan.
  • A discussion of the findings of the evaluation, with complete statistical and case study analysis.
  • A discussion of the evaluation’s conclusions and recommendations.
  • Any additional information required, such as terminology, details of who was involved in the evaluation, etc. in an appendix.

Examples

Example table of contents from a final report

The following is an excerpt from the main Table of Contents for an Evaluation Report for USAID (2010), pp 8-9 (NB: not including title page, preface, glossary and list of acronyms, terms, etc.)
 
  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
  • Description of the project
  • Evaluation purpose and Methodology – context of evaluation, questions, team, limitations…)
  • Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations
  • Lessons Learned
  • Appendices:      
  • Terms of Reference
  • Evaluation design and methodology – more complete overview than in the introduction
  • List of persons interviewed
  • List of documents review

Advice for using this method

Consider presenting positive findings first and then listing the negative findings. Use terms such as “accomplishments,” “success,” or “on target” for positive findings and then “making progress,” “needs improvement,” or “things to work on” for less-than-positive findings (from Torres et al., 2005).

Resources

  • Your detailed evaluation report

    This online guide to creating final evaluation reports provides a setp-by-step approach to developing a final report.

  • Evaluation report layout checklist

    This checklist from Stephanie Evergreen distills the best practices in graphic design and has been particularly created for use on evaluation reports.

  • Evaluation report checklist

    This checklist was developed by drawing upon and reflecting on The Program Evaluation Standards which were created for the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, 1994.  

Oxfam GB Evaluation Guidelines (accessed 2012-05-08): http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/~/media/Files/policy_and_practice/methods_approaches/monitoring_evaluation/ogb_evaluation_guidelines.ashx

Stetson, Valerie. (2008). Communicating and reporting on an evaluation: Guidelines and Tools. Catholic Relief Services and American Red Cross, Baltimore and Washington, USA. Download: http://www.crsprogramquality.org/storage/pubs/me/MEmodule_communicating.pdf

Torres, Rosalie T., Hallie Preskill and Mary E. Piontek. (2005). Evaluation Strategies for Communicating and Reporting: Enhancing Learning in Organizations (Second Edition). University of Mexico.

USAID. (2010). Constructing an evaluation report. Retrieved from https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnadw117.pdf

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